Greenville Police launch Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over campaign

GREENVILLE – The Greenville Police Department will join local and national law enforcement officers and highway safety advocates all across the country for the 2015 National Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over Campaign. During the mobilization, officers will be cracking down on motorists, Aug. 19 – Sept. 7– both day and night.

Did you know?

* Labor Day weekend brings an increase in highway travel and drunk driving, so State and local law enforcement agencies across the Nation are stepping up enforcement to crack down on this deadly epidemic and save lives.

* Approximately one-third of all traffic crash fatalities in the United States involve drunk drivers (with blood alcohol concentrations [BACs] of .08 of higher). In 2013, there were 10,076 people killed in these preventable crashes.

* On Labor Day weekend in 2013, there were 424 crash fatalities nationwide. Almost half (48 percent) of those fatal crashes involved drivers who had been drinking (.01+ BAC); 38 percent involved drivers who were drunk (.08+ BAC); and more than a fourth (27 percent) involved drivers who were driving with a BAC almost twice the illegal per se limit (.15+ BAC).

* In 2013, approximately 1 in 5 child (12 and younger) passenger deaths were in drunk-driving crashes. Seventy-one percent of the time, it was the child’s own driver who was drunk.

* Of those child passengers killed while riding with a drunk driver, 44 percent weren’t buckled up at the time of the crash.

* In addition to the human toll drunk driving takes on our country, the financial impact is devastating as well: based on 2010 numbers (the most recent year for which cost data is available), impaired-driving crashes cost the United States $49.8 billion annually.

* In every state it’s illegal to drive with a BAC of .08 or higher, yet one person is killed in a drunk-driving crash every 52 minutes in the United States.

* Of the 10,076 people killed in drunk-driving crashes in 2013, 65 percent were the drunk drivers themselves.

* In fatal crashes during the month of August over the five-year period of 2009-2013, almost 1 out of 10 (8 percent) of the drunk drivers involved had one or more previous convictions for drunk driving.

* Men are more likely than women to be driving drunk in fatal crashes. In 2013, 23 percent of males were drunk in these crashes, compared to 15 percent for females.

* Drunk driving is more common at night, and Labor Day weekend in 2013 was no exception. Half of all the fatalities during the nighttime (6 p.m. to 5:59 a.m.) involved drunk drivers, as compared to 14 percent during the day.

* Among the drivers between the ages of 18 and 34, who were killed in crashes over Labor Day weekend in 2013, 45 percent of those fatalities involved a drunk driver with a BAC of .08 or higher.

* Motorcycle riders have the highest overall rate of alcohol impairment in fatal crashes. In 2013, 27 percent of the motorcycle riders killed were driving impaired.

For more sobering statistics on drunk driving in the United States, visit www.trafficsafetymarketing.gov.

Law enforcement will be cracking down on impaired drivers around the clock. You can expect to get a ride to the police station at the very least.

“No excuses and no exceptions,” said Chief Dennis Butts.

More than 900 law enforcement partners around Ohio, including the Ohio State Highway Patrol, will be aggressively enforcing the law with a zero tolerance policy.